After taking the emotional temperature of the room over the last twenty minutes, it was clear to Meg that no one was comfortable with killing these mutant metasoldiers. Personally, Meg was starting to warm to the idea of ridding the world of Williams and his evil.
Her mother sighed deeply. “When I was in the military, I was trained to kill. I was given orders by my superiors, and I trusted those orders to be the lesser of evils. If I did not accomplish my objective, many more innocent lives would be lost. When in the heat of an assignment, there is no time for hesitation. Hesitation gets you or your teammates dead.”
Meg had never heard her mother talk like this before. This was a completely different side to her; one she obviously put away, to a certain extent, once she became a civilian.
“I never wanted this for you,” Margo continued looking around the room at the metas she raised as her own children. “I am sorry it has come to kill or be killed.” Then her eyes flashed red with anger, “You are not expendable,” and then she locked stares with Creed, “none of you is expendable.”
Creed nodded solemnly, even as thoughts of his brother swam in his emotions.
“It is a moral dilemma, to be sure,” Paulie agreed. Having served in Vietnam as an army medic, he had his own haunted memories of war.
Though the words were never explicitly said, they all understood. They would pull the trigger to protect themselves; it was the lesser of two evils.
Changing the subject, Creed spoke as he unpacked his duffle bags and laid the weapons carefully on the wide coffee table. “Jacobi agreed to fly us back to the states. He was already at the airport working on paperwork, so he’s readying a plane large enough to hold all of us. He said he thought he could get his copilot to agree to the last-minute flight, too.” Creed stopped to look up at the room. “We lucked out with them. They’re good guys.”
Meg breathed a sigh of relief that Creed was able to find a plane and pilots to get them out of there. “That’s excellent news; now how are we going to get to the airport when we have,” Meg stopped and rechecked, then swallowed the lump of nerves choking her, “about thirty minutes before the rabid dogs arrive?”
Creed nodded, acknowledging her worry. “I know you three can fight hand-to-hand since I saw you spar back in Kansas, but I really don’t want our fight today to get that close. I think we should barricade all the windows and doors, leave only enough room to shoot and position ourselves around the house. Each of us needs to have a pile of ammo at our ready. The humans—no offense Dr. Andrews and Paulie….”
“No, none taken,” both men stammered knowing full well their skills were not military-based at all.
“They can be our runners in case someone needs backup or ammo. I say we just tick them off one at a time as they pop their bloody heads out of the bushes. The faster we do that, the more fear we’ll strike in the group and hopefully we can get them to retreat long enough for us to run. If they don’t retreat, then I’ll just have to take them all out so there will be no one left to hunt us.” Creed shrugged nonchalantly as if he had just suggested they all go for a stroll on the beach after dinner.
More wide-eyed staring came from his enrapt audience.
“Oh yeah! Now, that’s what I call a plan!” Alik grinned and smacked Creed on the back.
“You mean we’ll,” Meg said coolly, eyes never leaving Creed’s chiseled face.
“No, I mean I’ll.” He knew exactly what part of his speech she was stuck on. He reached out and handed Meg a headset he had pulled from one of the bags. “You wear this and give me any hints you can as to where the rabid dogs are, and I’ll take them out.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Meg asked, already fearing the answer.
“With this,” Creed held up his Dragunov sniper rifle, “I’m going to be up in one of the trees out there, ready to eliminate them one by one.”
“Creed, no!” Meg gasped, sure he was living out the fatal devotion she already sensed in him.
“This is what I’ve been trained my whole life to do, Meg. I’m the best. You don’t need to worry about me. Besides, I’ll have an extrasensory set of eyes helping me know where my targets are.” His deep-blue eyes connected with hers and in them, she saw her world. He offered his disarming crooked grin as he put his own headset on. “It’ll be okay,” he nodded and sent Meg waves of reassuring emotions down an emotional tie she didn’t even know she had with him.
“Okay, the clock is ticking,” Paulie called from the corner of the room as he clutched his hunting rifle.